It has been a couple days, my Whovian friends. I trust that was plenty of time for your eyes to dry. Right, Cindy? Yes, in case you missed the news, after postingthis attack on the Ponds, our own Cindy Davis bawled over the ending of "The Angels Take Manhattan."

While spending a leisurely day at Central Park in Manhattan, Amy, Rory, and The Doctor suddenly are thrust into a pulp detective novel come to life. Alternatively, depending on how you like to interpret your timey-wimey chicken-or-egg conundrums, it's their paradoxical lives put into that novel, authored by one Melody Malone, a nom de plume for the only other Melody we know on Doctor Who: River Song. Rory is kicked back to 1938 from 2012 by some Central Park cherub Angels, and The Doctor and Amy set off to find him using the book's chapter titles as a guide, so as to avoid too much foreknowledge of their own futures, which creates those troublesome "fixed points" that can flummox even a meddling Time Lord.

What makes this detective story special is that it features the return of Moffat's villain at which everyone loves to stare unwaveringly, the Weeping Angels. Fortunately, this is the variety of Angel that zaps you backward through time in lieu of breaking your neck. Unfortunately, these Angels are still doing a good job of making people's existences miserable. Having commandeered a New York apartment building called the Winter Quay, they feed off the time energy of hurling people backward through time and keeping them prisoner within the building while those people grow old and die. (Aside: I can't be the only one who had never heard the word "quay" spoken aloud with that "key" pronunciation and just learned it as a result. If you're wondering, "kwey" is a valid alternate.)

Employing that cute messaging across time method that River and The Doctor have developed into an art (in this case via an ancient Chinese vase), The Doctor and Amy find River and Rory held prisoner by a 1938 gangster-type who is collecting Weeping Angels for fun. Yes, that is about as safe as it sounds, and, yes, this guy receives the appropriate comeuppance. Rory is left in the basement with the collection's baby Angels and is transported across space but not time to the Winter Quay. The baby-Angels-in-the-basement scene -- complete with dwindling matches and tittering and pitter-pattering-of-little-feet in the dark -- achieves all the creepiness that you expect in a Weeping Angels episode.

The Doctor, Amy, and River find Rory at the apartment building, and the four of them discover a dying old Rory in a bed. This implies that the Angels have trapped him there for the rest of his life, and the capture just hasn't happened yet. That's no problem for our TARDIS crew; they'll just create a paradox and undo this unholy victimization of the Big Apple by the Weeping Angels altogether. Paradoxes are old hat for them by now, although they do still require the standard Doctor Who prerequisite of running. This particular paradox culminates in a very sweet moment in which Rory and Amy throw themselves off a building together in order to contradict Rory's earlier (and later) death.

The paradox is completed, the Angels' deathtrap disappears in a flash of white light, and all seems fine. The Doctor and the Pond family are transported back to 2012 in a graveyard that has an eerie significance: Rory's gravestone is there. Before anyone can process what this means, a straggler Angel touches him and sends him back to an indeterminate time. Manhattan at this point is a mess of time-space manipulation, so The Doctor has no more paradoxes up his sleeve, lest they accidentally destroy Manhattan and/or unravel the universe. Amy bids The Doctor and her daughter farewell before she allows that Angel to touch her as well. This is the only way that she and Rory can live out their lives together, a fate confirmed by the gravestone when her name appears under Rory's name. The Doctor is devastated that his time with his friends is over.

River resolves to complete the time loop by writing the book and arranging for Amy of the past to receive it for publishing. She also tells The Doctor that she will encourage Amy to write an afterword for the book that serves as a letter for him. The Doctor - never fond of endings and having ripped out the last page of the book - chases down that page and reads her final note to him, a message of love, a hope that The Doctor will not travel alone, and a request that he go back to young Amelia Pond and encourage her to be patient during those years that first earned her the title of "the girl who waited."

Overall, this was a good episode. With all the hype about the departure of Amy and Rory, I did not find their actual exit as affecting as the simpler testaments to the bond of friendship between The Doctor and his TARDIS crew. Living out their lives happily together and dying of old age is not a sad fate in itself. (However, I do think they would have been happier living out their lives in their own time with Brian and their family and friends. Poor Brian.) Yet all good times must come to an end, and that mere fact is bittersweet enough. After such a fantastic "meet cute" way back in "The Eleventh Hour" between The Doctor and little Amelia, coming back to that full circle also resonated with me.

I did find some of "The Angels Take Manhattan" a little cheesy in presentation -- namely the use of slow-motion and the Statue of Liberty Angel. That Statue of Liberty is logistically questionable as well with all the tromping around a city that never sleeps. You would think there would be plenty of potential eyes upon it at all times and movement might be noticed and mentioned.

Still, the Angels were scary, and the rapport between all the characters was satisfying. With a strong five-episode stretch to begin this season, the prospects for Doctor Who are looking good.

A couple minor tangents: my wife was disappointed that Amy took Rory's last name after all. I theorized that their destination in the past might have required her to conform to the mores of the time. It also occurs to me that someone could still write a host of fan fiction about the adventures of Rory and Amy in the past. How long did it take to find each other? Did they go back to the exact same time initially? Did Amy outlive Rory by five years, as the gravestone indicates? Did she arrive five years early? How did they make their living? Given enough time, could Amy build another sonic "probe" of her own?

Also, did anyone else notice that poster of the Statue of Liberty in the elevator? I kept expecting it to come to life, given that we learned previously that the image of an Angel is an Angel. It occurs to me that perhaps the poster is what manifested outside the building with less distance to cover, but there was still a lot of loud stomping outside for much fewer necessary steps. Perhaps that was for show.

I shall see you all back at Christmas, when Jenna-Louise Coleman makes her official debut as the new companion. I of course am very eager to see how Oswin from "Asylum of the Daleks" connects to her new character, if at all.

***********

"Just a moment. Final checks."
"Since when?"
The Doctor preens.

"Didn't you used to be somebody?"
"Weren't you the woman who killed The Doctor?"
"Doctor who?"

"That was a stupid waste of regeneration energy. Nothing is gained by you being a sentimental idiot."
"River!"
"No, you embarrass me!"

"It would be almost impossible."
"Loving the 'almost.'"

"Rory, stop it, you'll die."
"Yeah, twice in the same building on the same night. Who else could do that?"

"You think you'll just come back to life?"
"When don't I?"

"There is a little girl waiting in a garden. She is going to wait a long while, so she is going to need a lot of hope. Go to her. Tell her a story. Tell her that if she is patient, the days are coming that she'll never forget. Tell her she'll go to sea and fight pirates. She'll fall in love with a man who'll wait two thousand years to keep her safe. Tell her she'll give hope to the greatest painter who ever lived and save a whale in outer space. Tell her this is the story of Amelia Pond, and this is how it ends."

***********

Classic Doctor Who Bonus:
This week, in honor of sad companion departures, I revisited "Earthshock" (1982). The Doctor (Peter Davison), Nyssa, Tegan, and Adric engage in a desperate fight against the Cybermen, who are intent on executing a terrorist attack on the Earth that will obliterate an intergalactic conference there convened to battle the Cybermen. I'll spare you the explicit spoilers. Highlights include the usual verbal duels between The Doctor and his second most popular classic enemy, a memorable and rare physical altercation on the bridge of the TARDIS in the adventure's climax, reminders that The Doctor doesn't always know best and that the companions in the old days functioned as a crew of equals to him in some capacities, and a very nifty time loop that explains the Alvarez hypothesis.

Thinking about the old days of watching Doctor Who, I'm reminded of a time when buzz and the Internet didn't let us know every single thing that was going to happen on television ahead of time. Perhaps had I lived in the U.K. and been watching the show as it was broadcast in 1982, I might have been aware that a companion was moving on in this episode. Instead, I was a kid watching a syndicated broadcast in the U.S. a few years later, and I knew nothing about when companions' runs were going to end or even the endpoints for seasons. I just showed up every Saturday night to watch this underappreciated niche show, and I clearly recall being shaken by the conclusion of "Earthshock" around midnight on one of those nights.

Perhaps years from now some kid with a love for science-fiction will jump on the Doctor Who bandwagon out of curiosity without any foreknowledge of the story behind these reruns that he found either on cable or in the catalog of an Internet service, and those final touches from a Weeping Angel will shake him too.

C. Robert Dimitri did his part when he visited New York and kept an eye on the Statue of Liberty for a few minutes.

Are you following Pajiba on Facebook or Twitter? Every time you do, Bill Murray crashes a wedding.

Comments Are Welcome, Bigots and Trolls Are Not

Morgan_LaFai

The one aspect that super annoyed me about the Doctor not being able to go back and get the Ponds is this: Though New York in 1938 is out as a destination, neither New York nor 1938 are impossible to get to. Tell Amy to collect Rory and travel to Boston where the Doctor will get them. Or tell Amy to wait 5 years and then he will pick them up at the top of the Empire States Building. 1938 New York is out but all else is still an option. And I don't see how the names on a gravestone makes them a fixed point in time. They could have all sorts and still find themselves buried there. Still though, I am glad they got to survive and live out their days together. Maybe they could even travel to England and become friends with Rory's da. If Melody Pond could be childhood friends with her parents I don't see why the Ponds couldn't give it a try.

BobbFrapples

I like that River siad she'd always travel anytime the Doctor asked, but that he needs a Companion. Also, did anyone catch the moment where the Doctor reacts to the fact that River is now a Professor and one step closer to Silence in the Library?

Meenama

I love this show and am very happy with Matt Smith as the Doctor. However I am delighted Amy Pond (Williams) has gone -- but perhaps would have liked a little more Brian and Rory. Amy Pond is gorgeous but why did they cake her in such heavy makeup for the last several episodes?. As gorgeous as Amy Pond looked thought that she exhibited an increasingly shrill, naggy, personality and had a very disrespectful attitude towards the Doctor. However Karen Gillan in interviews is lovely -- pity they didn't use more of her personality for the character rather than that of naggy chav Amy.

Sandrine

I got the feeling it was a subconscious way of trying to do what River said - Never let him see the damage. All that make up seemed to me to be trying to hide those lines around her eyes and such (too much make up to hide the fact a younger woman was trying to look like an older woman trying too hard?).

I was fond of a pond, but it was time for them to go. As much as I love Rory, Amy was getting on my nerves. I can't wait for he new girl!

Belphebe

I think that River can go back and see them. She accepts that they will age and can visit them in the 1940s and 50s. I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't bring Brian back to see them if not live with them in his old age. That's how Amy got the manuscript. River deserves some time with her parents after getting screwed over in childhood.

Alyssa

I'm in the (small?) camp of people who really, really disliked the episode for its use of paradoxes and timey wimey, for feeling like most of the emotional bits fell flat, for contradicting all kinds of previously established Weeping Angels canon, and for being confusing (I seriously don't get why the Doctor can never see them again, for example). Most of the gripes that Tom & Lorenzo made in their recap are the same ones I have.

But! In the spirit of positivity! I loved the opening scene with the three of them hanging out and reading in the sun. I've come to really enjoy the dynamic that they all have together. I loved that they had Rory acknowledge all the times he's died but not stayed dead, that's a meta wink I can get behind. And I liked River for the first time in years when at the end she, without hesitation, told Amy to go with Rory.

Ted Zancha

I have seen a few people in online discussions talking about how the episodes of this season are not in chronological order. Is that true?

And is this another trick Moffat is trying to pull on us?

Tinkerville

I've been wondering that as well. I think it's more than possible that Sunday's finale happens first and then the other episodes come after it. The Doctor did seem to know what was going to happen and was clinging on to his time with them.

But then the whole "I'll never see you again!" is negated, right? I do think that A Town Called Mercy happened during the seven weeks they were traveling on their anniversary. But I do agree that somehow the Doctor knew. At least had suspicions.

C. Robert Dimitri

I wrote a lengthy comment, but Disqus ate it.

Tinkerville

Oh, the issues I had with this episode. I was wildly disappointed. I can handle bad episodes every now and then -- every show has them -- but to have a bad one as the sendoff for two companions we've supposed to been loving and rooting for for two and a half years? I was not happy.

The whole episode felt slapped together and completely arbitrary to me, like it was written in a rush and had no sense of good storytelling behind the fact that Amy and Rory needed to leave. The Angels were no longer scary at all, instead the more Moffat uses them the sillier they're getting.

The Doctor didn't exactly seem to care one bit about Rory's fate from the start and just seemed decided on the fact that he should live decades of his life trapped all alone in a hotel. Really? We also never got a proper goodbye from him, he just got zapped back in the graveyard and that was it. And on that note I also hated the lack of Brian Williams. I would've loved some closure there and an end scene where the Doctor visits Brian and has to tell him that he's not going to see his son again. Why else did we get those scenes in the Power of Three when Brian worries about what Rory and Amy's fate will be?

I was expecting and desperately hoping for a hint that Rory and Amy would find young River wandering alone in New York and end up raising her themselves. In fact I thought that's where they were going with an episode set in New York in the past. That would put a nice bow on Amy and Rory finally being able to be parents and River's horrific childhood in the orphanage being remedied. But no, we get nothing about their relationship to their daughter beyond Amy holding her hand.

I won't even get started on the slapdash explanations for fixed points and paradoxes. I'm all about both of those things when they're done well (Adelaide Brook's story in Water of Mars was brilliant and heartbreaking, for example) but here it was a clear case of throwing those terms around and hoping no one would question why he can't tamper with the Angels and their timelines.

This is actually the most I've been disappointed in Doctor Who in a long time. I'm sure many others loved the episode and that's fine, to each their own and all that, but personally I wanted a better story for the Pond's sendoff. On a more optimistic note, I can't freaking wait till Christmas and the new companion's official introduction. (Edit: Ye gods, this was a long rant. Sorry! Shutting up now. )

Blake

BIG +1. Thank you Tinkerville!

peachykeen

Thank you! You've so eloquently stated what I've been trying to say for 2 day now. I should print this out on handy cards and pass it along to people when they ask me why I loathed this episode.

FireLizardQueen

I didn't like this episode. I haven't really liked many of the Matt Smith episodes (with a few exceptions) but this season so far just takes the cake.

I call BS on the fact that the doctor can't just go back and get Amy and Rory in 1939 or 1940, River obviously can, why can't the Doctor?The entire beginning with the gumshoe was a total waste of time and characters. The Doctor has healing powers now? Really?

Also, why wasn't this episode, or even better last week's episode, a 2 parter? Every other companion got to save the world or the universe before leaving, and this is what Rory and Amy get? It really didn't feel epic enough for me. /rant

Erich

Amy and Rory can be visited, but their timelines are locked in place. It was actually foretold in Vincent And The Doctor: No matter what they did,, his death happened when it happened. Same with Waters Of Mars. And once The Doctor read Amy's afterward, and learned that she and Rory lived a long, happy, peaceful life together, that was it. Their lives became fixed points in time, and nothing The Doctor could do would change that.

FireLizardQueen

I get that, but it was so badly explained in the episode. The whole thing was so rushed! I would've felt better if they had cut out the whole opening gumshoe detective scene and given us a later scene with Brian or a quick visit to say farewell to the Ponds.

Erich

He doesn't like endings. Saying goodbye would be an ending.

FireLizardQueen

Why would it have to be an ending? The Doctor has a time machine, he can literally go visit the Ponds at various points during their long and happy lives! It just seems like this particular doctor is looking at this in very linear fashion, for someone who is 1200 years old and visits all of time and space it just doesn't make sense. Everyone dies, and the Ponds did get to live out their lives...just in another time period.

BWeaves

1. I grew up in England. "Quay" is pronounced "key." Also, "cay" and "kay" are pronounced "key" as they are all the same word.

There's an episode of the British "Life on Mars" that revolves around the same pronunciation of the word "quay/key."

2. Brian!

3. Amy looked like she was wearing a wig half the time.

4. Rory dies 3 times in this episode. I think that's a record, even for him. At this point, I'm guessing Rory has died and come back more times than the Doctor.

5. I would think that even if the Statue of Liberty was a weeping angel, that it couldn't move because someone would always be looking at it. However, I didn't notice the poster in the elevator, so maybe that was the angel instead.

6. The angels at least got back to their original creepy mode of very fast movement while you weren't looking. That episode where they moved slowly and broke your neck just was wrong.

7. The baby angels were creepy as fuck. More please.

8. I'm guessing River could use her time vortex manipulator to visit her parents, or at least send the manuscript to Amy. It's obvious Amy recognizes the story and knows who it is from, so she can write the afterword. So, I still don't understand why the Doctor can't do what River does. It can't be the earlier version of River writing the novel, because she has to incorporate everything that actually happened, and only the older River knows that.

9. It was nice that Amy FINALLY chose Rory over the Doctor, but I didn't cry.

10. I was also curious what "time" River was in now. As someone else mentioned, she says she's a professor now, so getting close to "Silence in the Library" time. Also, she's been pardoned, because she couldn't have killed someone who doesn't exist. I didn't see that coming.

11. And, as someone else mentioned, I thought for sure that zapping Amy and Rory back in time in New York would allow them to find young River and raise her as her parents and thus close their loop.

Milly

RE: Amy's hair. I may be wrong, but I remember reading that a couple of further shoots were needed and Karen Gillan had had a haircut and so there were continuity issues hence the wig. Not sure if it was for this episode though.

semiotheque

This episode was a waste of good foreshadowing. Yes, it was sad to see the Ponds go, but really, the writers could have done so much more, so very much more with the themes developed in this season.

Opening episode: Asylum of the Daleks. Themes include sacrificing even a sympathetic Dalek to save the Ponds (and the Daleks).Dinosaurs on a Spaceship: Themes include killing a villain basically in cold blood in order to protect the Ponds from incoming missiles, and the Doctor seeming to know something specific (and tragic) about the Ponds in the future.A Town Called Mercy: themes include whether to throw out the small-d doctor whose presence is endangering the town. Amy Pond puts her foot down and says basically, "we don't do this, no matter what."The Slow Invasion: themes include the Ponds' dual life and how being secret time-travelers is maybe a bit wearing on them. Is the Doctor weaning them for their own protection? This ep dangles the hope that maybe they will be weaned before the tragic thing happens.

My hope going into this episode was that the tragic end for Amy and Rory would require the Doctor to choose principle (i.e., don't kill the bad guy no matter what, not even to save Amy and Rory) over saving them. I kind of hoped that what we were seeing in these episodes was the Doctor trying to get comfortable with killing the villain to save the Ponds, and in the end realizing that that is not how the Ponds would want to be saved.

Damn it, that last scene in the graveyard broke me. The swelling music, River kissing her mother's hand, "Come along, Pond. Please.".... TEARS. So many tears. I really liked this episode as a whole. The angels were quite scary and I always welcome the return of River Song. However, Moffatt needs to stop throwing characters that I love off of buildings. The emotional damage is starting to run deep.

I am a little torn with how I feel about their actual departure though. With the past companions (new series anyway), they always went out with a bang saving the universe. I was disappointed that the Ponds didn't get that moment. However, I have to remind myself that the Moffatt years are very, very different from RTD, and the fact that it came down to just the Doctor, Amy, Rory, and River seems appropriate to how the series was structured.

What was up with the Statue of Liberty though? It's made of metal, and people climb around in it and touch it every single day. And how did no one notice it stomping through the city? And how did Amy and Rory look away from it and nothing happened? I guess someone had noticed and was staring at it (a little too convenient.)

Also, can someone explain to me why the Doctor could never see them again? I understand that he can't bring the TARDIS back to NYC 1938, but are the Ponds locked there forever? It is also pretty vague how far back they even went anyway. Ugh. My head hurts. Timey wimey.

Kate at June

I had the same confusions.Ok, so he can't take the Tardis to NYC again. Alright.Can't Rory and Amy...you know...move out of New York City so he can pick them up someplace else?Can't River fetch them with her vortex manipulator and take them home like she did after A Good Man Goes to War? We know it still works, otherwise she would never get to the Library.

I had to go back and rewatch it--the Doctor says one throw away line about Amy creating a fixed point if she follows Rory right before she is zapped away. There needs to be actual rules for how this happens and why! Seemed like a too tidy explanation.

Plus, either River or The Doctor could at least visit them with the Tardis outside of NYC or the Vortex Manipulator, right? Blergh.

That hasn't been an issue in the past. They've sent him messages in the past (message in the cornfield). Why couldn't they just do that again? I mean, he knows where they are. He just needs the date. It should not be impossible for him to see them again.

DominaNefret

She signed her name Amy Williams on the divorce papers. She took his name from the get go, it was just the Doctor who called them the Ponds.

Kate at June

Yeah, it was just a term of endearment--one that Melody/River seemed to take to heart, though. I was also a bit bummed too, I admit, when I saw the divorce papers.Pro tip: Do not go on blastr and read the comments. Many angry men over there constantly correcting articles about "The Ponds" to "The Williams" and saying Rory was castrated. oy vey.

SBrown

Did Amy outlive Rory by five years, as the gravestone indicates? Did she arrive five years early?

According to the first episode with the angels, Amy would end up in the same place as Rory. When Billy was sent back to 1960 whatever, Ten said something about it.

Knowing this actually made me dislike the Doctor for a moment when Amy asked if she would go to the same place as Rory and the Doctor said he didn't know. He did know and he just didn't want to lose her. Too bad, sucker. She chose Rory.

I love how much Amy grew in her time. I love how there was no question ever that she was going to jump off the building and get zapped back in time. No more "do I choose Rory or the Raggedy Doctor"? Totally brilliant and a way better ending than any other of nu Who.

JenVegas

Oh man, I didn't even THINK about Brian until now. Damn. Poor guy, he's going to be devastated. And thank you VERY much Mr Moffat for completely ruining Bethesda Fountain for me, forever. Stupid, improbable baby angels. I hate you.

And another thing: It finally occurred to me why the weeping angels have never been as scary as they were in Blink: You're not meant to run away from them. In Blink, they were a very slow, intense kind of scary. Don't blink, or you'll die. By having the characters run away from them instead, the story becomes an entirely different kind of scary, much faster, like being chased by Alien vs. Predator. And that simply misses the point of the Weeping Angels. (As noted, the Doctor gets chased by monsters at weekly basis.)

It's not even the change in mythology that bothers me - as originally presented the Weeping Angels were too fast to run away from - but the difference in tone that is caused by having the doctor run instead of scare. IOW, I want Sally Sparrow back.

Steph

They were scary in Blink because that episode was plotted like a horror film, it was a slow burner that gradually ramped up the tension. The angel episodes since then expect them to be scary just by being there.

I was very happy with the goodbye to the Ponds (I did cry, but that's just cos I liked it.) The graveyard thing was something I had hoped for - in a non-morbid way. I wanted them to live out their lives without the Doctor. I just didn't think it would be outside of their own time. I have liked both Amy and Rory, though not always how Amy treated Rory, so I liked very much that they get to be together, and that she's the one who makes that decision.

The Statue of Liberty angel did make me roll my eyes. I had thought they'd do it but hoped they wouldn't. The baby angels are FREAKY.

Also made me wonder if the child River who regenerates in 1970s New York (in the astronaut storyline) had been visiting her parents...though maybe I am reading too much into it, seeing as there's nothing to indicate the time frame the Ponds end up in (and I also noted the name change on the grave stone).

Also also, when they land in the graveyard after the 'jump', I swear Amy is wearing a wig. Am wondering if they did reshoots, and if so, why.

But all in all, the send off for them that I wanted. Looking forward to the new companion.

AngelenoEwok

She's been wearing a wig for most of this season, because Karen Gillan got bangs.

Carrie/Teabelly

Oooh, I am very unobservant then. Though the bit at the very end looked like real hair again. (Not that this is a major plot point, I just wondered if something had been changed/they'd added that bit in.)

ShagEaredVillain

I watched this, followed by episode 2.3 of "Sherlock" last night. It was not a good night to have the emotion chip turned on.